New France, and later, British North America, dotted the landscape of their colonies in the New World with military architecture that had its origins in Europe in ancient times, and through evolution, had developed into a geometric system of earthworks that could sometimes withstand the attack of cannons. Flying over Fort Beauséjour in 1975, as part of an experiment in aerial archaeology, I took this photo using infra red colour film. It gives the landscape a peculiar colour and the plan of the fort and the earthworks surrounding it are intensified by the unfamiliar colour. You see it with new eyes. The basic plan is like a five-pointed star with…

There was no end to my desire to study the topography of Chignecto in which I lived from 1967 to 1981. I drove in my car, rode my horse and walked on foot over many kilometers of ground much travelled by the Mi’kmaq, the French, the Acadians and the English in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Isthmus of Chignecto, joining New Brunswick to mainland Nova Scotia has witnessed the presence of human beings for over 12,000 years. When the French arrived there in the Seventeenth Century the Mi’kmaq had been there for over 2,000 years.   … Sikniktuk (or Chignecto) is located in Siknikt, one of the seven districts of Mi’kma’ki…